Although exhibiting limited genetic polymorphism, the very large genome of H. vastatrix (c. 797 Mbp) conceals great pathological diversity, with more than 50 physiological races. Gene expression studies have revealed a very precocious activation of signalling pathways and production of putative effectors, suggesting that the plant-fungus dialogue starts as early as at the germ tube stage, and have provided clues for the identification of avr genes.

Considerable success has been obtained in the use of classical breeding to control economically important plant diseases, such as the coffee leaf rust and the coffee berry disease (CBD). There is a strong consensus that growing genetically resistant varieties is the most appropriate cost effective means of managing plant diseases and is one of the key components of crop improvement. It has also been recognized that a better knowledge of both, the pathogens and the plant defence mechanisms will allow the development of novel approaches to enhance the durability of resistance. After a brief description of concepts in the field of plant disease resistance, we attempt to give a view of the research progress on coffee leaf rust and CBD concerned with the pathogens infection and variability, coffee breeding for resistance and coffee resistance mechanisms. Key words: Coffea, Colletotrichum kahawae, Hemileia vastatrix, coffee breeding, resistance.Resistência do cafeeiro para suas principais doenças: ferrugem alaranjada das folhas e antracnose dos frutos: Sucesso considerável tem sido obtido no uso do melhoramento clássico para o controle de doenças de plantas economicamente importantes, tais como a ferrugem alaranjada das folhas e a antracnose dos frutos do cafeeiro (CBD). Há um grande consenso de que o uso de plantas geneticamente resistentes é o meio mais apropriado e eficaz em termos de custos do controle das doenças das plantas, sendo também um dos elementos chave do melhoramento da produção agrícola. Tem sido também reconhecido que um melhor conhecimento do agente patogênico e dos mecanismos de defesa das plantas permitirá o desenvolvimento de novas abordagens no sentido de aumentar a durabilidade da resistência. Após uma breve descrição de conceitos na área da resistência das plantas às doenças, nesta revisão tentou-se dar uma idéia do progresso na investigação da ferrugem alaranjada do cafeeiro e do CBD relativamente ao processo de infecção e variabilidade dos agentes patogênicos, melhoramento do cafeeiro para a resistência e mecanismos de resistência do cafeeiro. Palavras-chave: Coffea, Colletotrichum kahawae, Hemileia vastatrix, melhoramento do cafeeiro, resistência.

Ecological speciation through host-shift has been proposed as a major route for the appearance of novel fungal pathogens. The growing awareness of their negative impact on global economies and public health created an enormous interest in identifying the factors that are most likely to promote their emergence in nature. In this work, a combination of pathological, molecular and geographical data was used to investigate the recent emergence of the fungus Colletotrichum kahawae. C. kahawae emerged as a specialist pathogen causing coffee berry disease in Coffea arabica, owing to its unparalleled adaptation of infecting green coffee berries. Contrary to current hypotheses, our results suggest that a recent host-jump underlay the speciation of C. kahawae from a generalist group of fungi seemingly harmless to coffee berries. We posit that immigrant inviability and a predominantly asexual behaviour could have been instrumental in driving speciation by creating pleiotropic interactions between local adaptation and reproductive patterns. Moreover, we estimate that C. kahawae began its diversification at <2200 bp leaving a very short time frame since the divergence from its sibling lineage (c. 5600 bp), during which a severe drop in C. kahawae's effective population size occurred. This further supports a scenario of recent introduction and subsequent adaptation to C. arabica. Phylogeographical data revealed low levels of genetic polymorphism but provided the first geographically consistent population structure of C. kahawae, inferring the Angolan population as the most ancestral and the East African populations as the most recently derived. Altogether, these results highlight the significant role of host specialization and asexuality in the emergence of fungal pathogens through ecological speciation.

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Anthracnose is an important disease affecting mature olive fruits, causing significant yield losses, and poor fruit and oil quality. In Portugal, high anthracnose incidence was recorded during 2003-2007 with 41% of 908 orchards surveyed displaying disease symptoms. In another 14% of the orchards, the pathogen was recorded in symptomless plants. Disease severity was on average 36%, frequently reaching 100%. In Portugal, anthracnose is endemic to neglected orchards of susceptible cultivars, but under favourable conditions it can also severely affect less susceptible cultivars. Pathogens were genetically heterogeneous, with Colletotrichum acutatum genetic group A2 as the most frequent (80%), followed by group A4 (12%) and group A5 along with C. gloeosporioides (3-4%), while groups A3 and A6 of C. acutatum were sporadic. Important geographic variations were observed in the frequencies of these populations, accompanied by year-to-year populational shifts. Epidemiology and histopathology studies showed the presence of the pathogens on vegetative organs year-round, particularly on olive leaves and branches, and on weeds. These represent inoculum reservoirs where secondary conidiation occurs, and conidia are then dispersed by spring rains reaching flowers and young fruits or by autumn rains reaching pre-mature fruits. Unripe fruits were colonized without showing symptoms up to penetration of the cuticle, but further colonization and symptom production was completed only as fruits matured. These findings challenge current control practices, particularly the timing of fungicide treatment, and contribute to improved disease management.

In Arabica coffee breeding, some of the most used sources of resistance to leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) are natural Coffea arabica x canephora hybrids ("Híbrido de Timor"). To decipher the cellular and molecular nature of that resistance, leaves of genotype HDT832/2, were challenged with H. vastatrix race II, and monitored using light microscopy and RT-qPCR expression analysis of genes involved in plant immunity mechanisms (receptor-like kinase, WRKY transcription factor 1, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, chalcone synthase, 13-lipoxygenase, glycosyltransferase, pathogenesis related PR1b and PR10). These were compared to the nonhost resistance responses of HDT832/2 to the infection by the cowpea rust fungus (Uromyces vignae). H. vastatrix ceased growth more frequently after stomata penetration, forming few haustoria, inducing a hypersensitive-like response, phenol accumulation and haustorium encasement with callose. U. vignae could enter stomata but failed to form haustoria, while inducing hypersensitive-like responses and phenol accumulation. In host and nonhost interactions, activation of genes involved in signalling coincided with the differentiation of appressoria, and cellular responses (hypersensitive-like responses and accumulation of phenolic compounds) were recorded from the full appressorium or penetration hypha stages onwards. Similarly, a gene related to the JA pathway was first activated at the penetration hypha stage for both interactions, while genes related to the SA pathway were only activated in the host interaction, the latter being the single clear difference between host and nonhost interactions. The cellular and molecular resistance responses of HDT832/ 2 to these rust fungi suggest that common immunity components are shared between host and nonhost resistance, which may explain the longer durability of this resistance.

Coffee leaf rust, caused by Hemileia vastatrix (Hv), represents the biggest threat to coffee production worldwide and ranks amongst the most serious fungal diseases in history. Despite a recent series of outbreaks and emergence of hypervirulent strains, the population evolutionary history and potential of this pathogen remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we used restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) to generate ∼19 000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across a worldwide collection of 37 Hv samples. Contrary to the long-standing idea that Hv represents a genetically unstructured and cosmopolitan species, our results reveal the existence of a cryptic species complex with marked host tropism. Using phylogenetic and pathological data, we show that one of these lineages (C3) infects almost exclusively the most economically valuable coffee species (tetraploids that include Coffea arabica and interspecific hybrids), whereas the other lineages (C1 and C2) are severely maladapted to these hosts, but successfully infect diploid coffee species. Population dynamic analyses suggest that the C3 group may be a recent 'domesticated' lineage that emerged via host shift from diploid coffee hosts. We also found evidence of recombination occurring within this group, which could explain the high pace of pathotype emergence despite the low genetic variation. Moreover, genomic footprints of introgression between the C3 and C2 groups were discovered and raise the possibility that virulence factors may be quickly exchanged between groups with different pathogenic abilities. This work advances our understanding of the evolutionary strategies used by plant pathogens in agro-ecosystems with direct and far-reaching implications for disease control.

Leaf rust caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix is the most devastating disease of arabica coffee ( Coffea arabica). Therefore, developing leaf rust-resistant varieties has been a breeding objective of the highest priority in many countries. The purpose of the present work was to gain insight into the mechanism of introgression into C. arabica of a leaf rust resistance gene from C. liberica (i.e. S(H)3 resistance factor) and to identify associated molecular markers. An F(2) progeny (i.e. 101 individuals) derived from a cross between Matari, an arabica accession and liberica-introgressed line S.288, was evaluated for resistance against three different races of H. vastatrix. The progeny segregated for the S(H)3 gene in a 3:1 ratio, as expected for a single dominant gene. Amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of a population subset using 80 different primer combinations revealed that at least half of the total polymorphism observed in the population is associated with introgression of C. liberica chromosome fragments. Furthermore, 15 primer combinations generating candidate marker bands associated with the S(H)3 resistance gene were used to analyse the whole F(2) population. A total of 34 marker bands originating from S.288 and attributable to introgression were scored. None exhibited segregation distortion. Linkage analysis revealed only three distinct introgressed fragments corresponding to a total length of 52.8 cM. Twenty-one markers were strongly associated (LOD score >14) with the S(H)3 gene and were grouped together in a single linkage group of 6.3 cM. The results are discussed in relation to the efficient use of genetic resources in arabica breeding.